For Savannah, he will never be forgotten.During your trial you will have complete digital access to FT.com with everything in both of our Standard Digital and Premium Digital packages. Now more than 80 years old, Berendt will most likely never release another novel. More than a quarter century has passed since the publication of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and its been than fifteen years since The City of Fallen Angels was released. That story focused on the eccentric characters he met in Venice in the days after the catastrophic fire that destroyed the historic La Fenice opera house in 1996. Readers were captivated with the peculiar characters that Berendt revealed.Īfter Midight in the Garden of Good & Evil, Berendt waited a decade to publish his follow up novel, The City of Fallen Angels, which was released in 2005 by Penguin Press. The events surrounding the 1981 murder at Mercer House on Monterey Square would be the foundation he used to craft an intriguing true-crime drama in the heart of the south. He became fascinated with the story and intrigued by the bizarre people he met.
His monthly columns afforded him the ability to travel and by 1983 he came to Savannah.īerendt arrived a couple of years after the infamous murder of Danny Hanford by the eccentric antiques dealer Jim Williams. From 1977 to 1979, he had the one of the most cherished jobs in the literally world as editor of the prestigious New York Magazine.Īfter the 70s transitioned into the 80s, John Berendt found himself working for most of the decade as a columnist back at Esquire. But Berendt loved seeing his words in print and that led him back to the magazine world. Later he worked as a writer for the David Frost Show and the Dick Cavett Show. He majored in English while attending Harvard and headed to New York City after graduation.įor much of the 1960s (1961-1969) he was an associate editor as Esquire Magazine.
His parents were both writers and, perhaps, the art of crafting words is in his DNA. John Berendt was born in Syracuse, NY in 1940 to Ralph and Carol Berendt. More than 25 years after the novel was first published, Savannah continues to reap the rewards for Berendt’s masterpiece that weaved a true crime drama with eccentric characters that made his book a fascinating read. Even to this day, that record is still intact. The book he wrote was Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil and it stayed atop the New York Times Best Seller List for an incredible four years.
Maybe that’s because in writing his first novel, he put our city in the spotlight like never before, causing a sharp rise in tourism and enchanting readers with his tale of intrigue set in downtown Savannah. For a man who wasn’t born in Savannah, John Berendt certainly has an unusually close bond with our city.
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